A great day with 700 dogs - Tangier
SFT Animal Sanctuary, Tangier, Morocco
This was one of the best experiences I have had in my travels.
I visited this amazing animal sanctuary with a Moroccan guy and a British lady and her daughter.
We found each other on a Tangier facebook page because she asked for people to share a cab to get there. (It is outside the city)
And a local man volunteered to drive us, which made the whole experience even more rich and interesting.
There are about 1000 animals including about 700 dogs and 100 or so cats, a herd of donkeys, a few pigs, chickens and a monkey at SFT Animal Sanctuary.
The shelter was started and is still run by one local woman, Sally.
Sally grew up in Tangier seeing the suffering of street dogs and cats. She dedicates her life to these animals.
Workers and volunteers live on site and have areas they are responsible for.
Volunteers stay a minimum of two weeks and sleep in the cat house in a bed with the cats!
These people truly love and give high-quality care to these animals.
The dogs are happy and friendly with good coats and energy.
The cats have shiny coats and are getting along together and most seem friendly.
They receive vet care, shots, high-quality food and neutering.
Some will live here full time and many are ready for adoption.
AND Sally created the program that releases dogs back onto the streets to live after vet care and shots and assigning a guardian to them.
There are dogs with yellow tags in their ears all over Tangier living peacefully in the streets and parks with humans thanks to this project
It is a model project that she hopes will be adopted in other cities in Morocco.
Below is a video and photos I took so you get a feeling of this vibrant and slightly overwhelming place.
The photos don't give a full picture of what it feels and sounds like to be among hundreds of dogs, wagging, barking, rubbing and some jumping on you out of joy!
Or sitting with 30 cats some coming to you for pets, rubbing on you and jumping into your lap.
(As a cat lover, this was a bucket list experience I didn’t even know I had!)
This is what we saw when we arrived; a large house with a lot of dogs in the yard.
Dogs greeting us at the gate. It was loud! Lots of barking. And safe.
Wheelie Babies!
That is what Sally calls these little dogs on scooter wheels.
She and the helpers take them to the beach sometimes so they can run/scoot freely in the sand.
This is the property of SFT Animal Sanctuary.
The colored roofs are living spaces for dogs along the dirt road.
Below is a video of the road through the property with the dog shelters and donkeys along the sides.
This gives you a taste of what it is like being on a property with 700 dogs!
Dogs bark pretty much all the time.
Next are the cats:
This is one of the two cat houses. They have shiny coats and many were friendly and wanted pets and to sit on our laps.
If you volunteer at SFT, you sleep here with the cats!
Two sweet donkeys that walked up to me.
Walking back to the house after visiting the property. Dogs following.
PS: SFT runs on donations.
A vet has donated hundreds of hours of time and the animals continually need food and care.
You can donate if you like by googling “SFT Animal Sanctuary” and going on their website.
In Morocco a monthly donation of 1 dollar or 5 dollars goes at least three times farther than in the US, and maybe more.
Thank for reading.
If you like animals, stay tuned. I will be writing and posting about the cats and dogs of Tangier and Paris.
Cheers,
Nancy